He stood up. “I’m not asking you to quit. I just want us to be together. I love you. You love me. Why are we wasting time?”

“Because I have to be here!” I said. “Noah, I’ve never wanted to live in Stoningham. That’s your dream. Mine is something different. You move here, and we’ll see how it goes.”

He wasn’t going to move here. It was loud. Dirty. Crowded. The air smelled bad.

“I have to stay here,” I said. “And you know what? I love it here. This is where I have to be right now. If I leave, I’ll never prove I’m good enough.” My voice broke.

“Sadie. You’re more than good enough.”

“You’re the only one who thinks so, and Noah, I’m sorry, you just don’t know that much about art.”

“I do know about you, though.”

Tears slid down my cheeks. “Then you know I have to stay.”

“I’ve saved money so we can travel, and I’ll build us a house where you can have a studio with the right light—”

“You’re not listening to me. We’re twenty-two, Noah. I’m not getting married this young. And I don’t want to move back to Connecticut. Maybe ever.”

He closed his eyes.

“So let’s just keep going this way,” I said, reaching for his hand. “Long-distance. We’ll figure something out. Weekend lovers. It’s not perfect, but it’s enough.”

“No. It’s not.”

The weight of those words seemed to squeeze all the air from the room. “Are you going to dump me because I have ambition, Noah?” I asked. My throat felt like I’d swallowed a razor blade.

“I’m just saying you can have ambition and work from anywhere in the world. I’m asking you to make a life with me. I thought it’s what we both wanted. You can’t raise a family if one parent doesn’t live in the same state.”

“Okay, it’s way too early to be thinking about raising a family,” I said. “You can work from anywhere, too, Noah. You could get a job here in a heartbeat. There’s a housing boom, in case you didn’t notice.”

“I don’t want to live here. I hate this city.”

“Well, I hate Stoningham.”

“No, you don’t! You just think you have to because it’s small and quiet. It’s not part of the story you made up about how New York would fall over itself when you came to town.”

Oh. His words sliced me right through the heart. They were so big and painful—and true—that I was frozen where I stood.